


hold me together

by fawnmon (hartbeat)



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02
Genre: Angst, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dark Spores, Gen, Healing, Heartbeats, M/M, Parasites, Sharing a Bed, Touching, skin-to-skin contact
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:55:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23790418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hartbeat/pseuds/fawnmon
Summary: the dark spore is dying, and it’s trying to take ken along with it. daisuke is not going to let that happen.
Relationships: Ichijouji Ken & Motomiya Daisuke | Davis Motomiya, Ichijouji Ken/Motomiya Daisuke | Davis Motomiya
Comments: 15
Kudos: 42
Collections: Daiken Discord Server, Daiken Kinkmeme Challenge





	hold me together

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this for the brand new [DAIKEN KINK MEME](https://daiken-kink-meme.dreamwidth.org/) put together by the daiken discord server!! i was born on the kink memes and to the kink memes i have finally returned. this fic is actually a combination of two prompts, ["intimate healing"](https://daiken-kink-meme.dreamwidth.org/791.html?thread=5655#cmt5655) and ["dark seed reduction"](https://daiken-kink-meme.dreamwidth.org/791.html?thread=5911#cmt5911). tried to fill both to the best of my ability with this, and i'm really happy with the result! get ready for angst and tenderness and lots and lots of touch. enjoy!
> 
> contact me on twitter @fawnmons if you're interested in joining the daiken discord server!

daisuke thought when they banished daemon and defeated belialvamdemon, there would be no more evil forces haunting him and his friends. turns out the next threat comes not from some outside force, but from within ken himself. barely a month after their triumph, daisuke’s best friend’s health begins to rapidly decline. he stops going to school, stops showing up for practice, stops showing up at the odaiba train station to meet daisuke for a sleepover. soon daisuke is making near-daily trips over to tamachi, homemade ramen in tow to try and coax him to eat, to speak, to do _something._ but no matter what he tries, ken just lies in bed, just sits at the table, just stares blankly out the window like he has no energy left to even blink. 

when daisuke walks in and finds him sitting at the table this evening with wormmon on his lap and his eyes fixed on something that isn’t there, not even registering that the digimon is vainly trying to get his attention by scratching at his shirt, daisuke’s heart sinks. ken might as well be in some waking coma at this point.

daisuke puts the ramen on the table and ken doesn’t react, not even to the smell of it when he opens the steaming pot. wormmon peers over the edge of the table at it and turns to ken. “ken-chan, it’s your favorite.”

finally pulling himself out of his trance, ken blinks and registers the presence of his visitor. “daisuke.”

“hey, ken,” daisuke says as he sits slowly down across from him. though he’s sure he already knows the answer, he tentatively asks, “are you feeling any better?”

ken shakes his head distantly. his eyes fall on the pot of ramen between them. 

“i, uh, brought this for you,” daisuke says, gesturing to the food. “you’re not gonna get any better if you don’t eat.”

“he hasn’t eaten anything since yesterday,” wormmon whispers, a bit too loudly, but ken doesn’t say a word anyway. crestfallen, daisuke crosses his arms over his chest and leans in.

“have you figured anything out? why you’ve been sick?” daisuke urges his despondent friend. “it’s the dark spore, isn’t it?”

ken is quiet for a while longer. wormmon shifts in his arms, looking up at him with big, worried eyes. finally, he speaks, slow and deliberate. “i think i know what’s happening.”

daisuke nods encouragingly, desperate to get some idea of what’s going on, of how he can help.

“i think... it’s dying,” ken murmurs. “and i along with it.”

a lightning bolt of fear strikes daisuke’s heart and his mouth falls open in shock. could ken really be _dying?_ stubbornly, he shakes his head.

“no. _fuck_ no. i’m not gonna let that happen.”

“maybe this is just how it’s meant to be,” ken murmurs again in that strange, empty voice. “maybe it’s what i deserve."

“don’t say stuff like that,” daisuke scolds, tears springing to the corners of his eyes. “‘cause it’s not true.”

“ken-chan, listen to daisuke,” wormmon pleads, rubbing his head against ken’s chest. “you’re wrong.”

ken barely reacts, stroking wormmon’s antennae idly with one hand while the other lies limp on the table. the worst part of this, daisuke thinks, is that he doesn’t even seem sad about his own possible demise. he’s just _blank._ he doesn’t seem to have the ability to emote at all anymore and it scares daisuke, more than anything, to watch him just slip away like this. the ken he knows would _fight._ and if he can’t do that, then daisuke will fight for him. rubbing the leaky corners of his eyes, daisuke vows:

“i’m gonna find a way to fix this. i’ll save you. i promise.”

he grabs ken’s free hand, and ken suddenly gasps, fingers twitching and eyes stretching wide. daisuke looks into those deep blues and for a moment he can see the ken he knows and loves, the indomitable spirit within. guilt and fear flicker across his features and then, suddenly more lucid than he’s been in weeks, ken nods in agreement. “thank you, daisuke.”

for the first time since all of this started, his voice is filled with hope.

—

“koushiro!” daisuke calls as he barrels into the school computer lab his fellow chosen calls an office the next morning. “i need your help!”

koushiro looks up from his computer. “oh, hello daisuke-kun. what’s the issue?”

“ken’s in trouble. he says he thinks the dark spore is dying and it’s trying to take him with it. i am _not_ gonna let that happen,” daisuke tells him firmly. “you’re the biggest nerd i know, you’ve got to have _some_ theory about all this.”

koushiro frowns.

“being a computer nerd doesn’t mean i’m an expert on parasitic organisms.”

“but the spore, it — it’s _digital!”_

“that’s true. but ichijouji-kun isn’t. there’s so little research on the interaction between digital and organic bodies... only my own, really.” koushiro ponders for a moment, then clicks at his computer, opening a document to write notes in. “tell me everything you know about his condition.”

“he’s getting weaker every day. he’s pale, he’s cold, and i can’t even get him to eat his favorite ramen,” daisuke frets. his hands ball into fists at his sides. “i can’t let him get any worse. i _can’t_ lose him, koushiro.”

“i’m sure that if anyone will be able to help him, it’s you, daisuke-kun,” koushiro tells him seriously, as if it’s fact — and daisuke desperately wants to believe it. “have you noticed anything else?”

“there is one thing,” daisuke begins slowly, “the other day, when i held his hand, he — he seemed to come _alive,_ somehow. for a second he looked like his old self again.”

koushiro hums, intrigued. “then maybe you might actually be the answer.”

“what do you mean?”

“you’re his jogress partner. jogress is a union of two beings in which they share their energy with one another. they’re stronger together than they were apart. maybe with your help, with your _energy,_ he can fight it off.”

“well, what do i have to do?” daisuke presses.

“you said he reacted positively to your touch, right?” 

daisuke nods.

“jogress is a union of _bodies_ as well as minds. try to give him as much skin-to-skin contact as you can and see if that helps.”

“skin-to-skin? are you sure?” daisuke mumbles, a blush rising to his cheeks. he and ken are close, but ken is quite guarded, physically, and he’s not sure how well he’ll take to this solution. the most contact they’ve had is holding hands and the occassional hug. koushiro shrugs.

“you wanted to know my theory, and that’s it. is that something you’re willing to do?”

daisuke responds with fire in his eyes. _“anything._ i’ll do anything.”

—

“skin-to-skin?” ken repeats hazily.

“yeah, that’s what he said,” daisuke confirms as he sits awkwardly across from ken at the latter’s kitchen table that afternoon. “last night, when i touched your hand... did you feel anything?”

it takes ken a moment to respond, struggling to reach his own recent memories. “yes. i felt... better. briefly.”

immediately, daisuke reaches over the table and covers one of ken’s cold hands with both of his own. once again ken startles, and gazes at daisuke with eyes suddenly clear. that’s all the confirmation he needs.

“we’re doing this.” 

after a talk with ken’s parents (who think it’s a great idea for daisuke to stay with ken while he’s ill), daisuke calls his parents and tells them he’ll be sleeping over. next he takes wormmon aside and tells him he’s going to need ken to himself tonight, which wormmon understands, just thanking him for helping. they spend the day sitting on the couch together, daisuke never letting go of ken’s hand, talking quietly to him to keep him alert.

“i’ll stay with you all night. if just holding hands can do this much, then sleeping next to each other will definitely make you better.”

“do you think it’s going to work?” ken asks softly as he watches daisuke trace the veins on his wrist.

daisuke presses one finger against ken’s weakened pulse, brow furrowed with determination. “it has to.”

by the evening ken feels good enough to actually eat some dinner, and afterwards daisuke borrows a pair of ken’s oversized pajamas and helps him up to his top bunk, then climbs up after him. now is when the real treatment will start. the only problem is, they’ve never actually slept in the same bed before, and though it seemed like such an easy solution in theory, daisuke is now paralyzed on the top rung of the ladder, unsure how to proceed.

“what... _are_ we going to do, exactly?” ken asks, obviously feeling similarly nervous as he sits with his knees to his chest over by his pillow and looks back at daisuke.

“just... sleep together while touching, i guess,” daisuke mumbles, settling at the other end of the mattress.

“alright,” ken says, taking in a deep breath of courage. “you should come lie down with me then.”

the two of them get beneath the blankets and lie facing each other. for a few minutes they just look each other in the eyes, sharing the same pillow, sharing the same breath. then daisuke’s hand crawls forward to find ken’s, touching each point of their fingertips together at once. warmth clashes with cold, and ken reacts as he would to a static shock before pressing them back together. he lifts their conjoined hands up to their faces, blinking at daisuke through the spaces between their fingers.

daisuke’s mouth feels dry. “can i... hug you?”

ken nods mutely, and daisuke scoots in close and wraps his arms around him. their cheeks brush and ken gasps, fully shuddering in his grasp. daisuke pulls back immediately. “is that too much?”

there’s something _fevered_ in ken’s eyes that is not due to the sickness, but the _absence_ of it.

“no — i think it’s _not enough.”_

trembling himself, daisuke reaches out to caress ken’s cheek. ken closes his eyes, leaning into the touch with a shaky sigh. the heat spreads from his fingers to ken’s pallid skin and makes it warm, makes it bright. exploring, he brushes them under his chin and down the column of his throat, watching in wonder as ken’s pale skin flushes beneath his touch. he comes to a stop about his collarbones, where the first button of ken’s sleepshirt blocks his path. 

“skin-to-skin,” daisuke murmurs. that’s the cure. 

“...can i take this off?”

ken open his eyes, and they’re clear as ever.

“yes.”

one by one, daisuke undoes the buttons from the top down. ken’s own hands fumble at the bottom, meeting daisuke’s somewhere in the middle of his chest and grabbing both his hands before he can touch any of the newly exposed skin.

“i trust you,” he tells him.

invigorated by his words, daisuke pushes ken’s shirt off his shoulders and moves inwards from there, spreading warmth along the planes of ken’s chest, along the ridges and valleys of his ribs. he presses one hand flat to his belly, curves the other over his hip, feels him tremble, inside and out. everywhere he touches, ken seems to come alive, his blood pumping faster beneath his skin.

“is this working?” daisuke breathes.

ken nods against the pillow, eyes screwed shut. he’s not in pain, but something else is spreading fire along his nerves, a fire he doesn’t want to go out — a fire daisuke is all to happy to stoke, as he draws his hand up ken’s back, leaving a trail of heat and goosebumps along the line of his spine. when he gets to his shoulders, he pulls him close, face burying in the strengthening pulse at the side of his neck. ken’s hands move on an opposite path, falling down daisuke’s back to tug at the hem of his sleepshirt.

“yours.”

daisuke nods into ken’s shoulder and parts with him for just a moment to help ken yank the loose shirt over his head and toss it aside with the other. the second he’s free of it he glues their bodies together front-to-front, wrapping his bare arms around ken tightly to contain the violent shudder that courses through him at the sudden increase of skin contact. ken hides his face against the side of daisuke’s, long lashes fluttering by his earlobe.

“it’s like — _jogress.”_ ken’s breath is stuttering, breaking up his words. “i can feel you.”

their chests are pressed together with only a barrier of warming skin and shuddering bone to stop their hearts from becoming one. wrapped around daisuke’s back, ken’s thin arms pull him impossibly closer as if they, too, could merge.

“i haven’t felt anything in so long.”

the longer they stay pressed together, the more daisuke’s energy seems to flow into ken and bring him back to life. the warmth spreads from their combined core to his extremities, and his legs tangle with daisuke’s under the blankets. there’s just one part of him that daisuke has been avoiding: the nape of his neck, hidden by his curtain of silky hair, where the dying seed resides. for a while daisuke just trails his hands slowly up and down the ridges of ken’s vertebrae, until he finally comes to a stop between his shoulderblades.

“the spore...” he murmurs. 

ken stiffens in his grasp. his heartbeat quickens.

“should i?”

daisuke’s fingers creep slowly upwards. ken nods, cheek pressed still against daisuke’s. he squeezes his eyes shut again.

as gently as he possibly can, daisuke draws his fingers up the back of ken’s neck, snaking beneath his hair to find the spot where the spore had implanted itself inside him and cover it with his hand. it feels deathly cold under his palm. ken makes a strangled sound in his throat, convulsing against daisuke in his most intense shudder yet. his fingernails dig into the bare skin of daisuke’s back, drawing hot blood. terrified that something is wrong, daisuke lifts his hand, moves it to ken’s cheek and pulls him to face him. there are tears streaming from his eyes, which look dazed and empty again. daisuke feels sick.

_“ken —“_ daisuke urges, thumbing across his cheek. “ken, did i hurt you?”

ken’s eyes blink back into focus, and, miraculously, his lips form a smile despite his tears.

“no, daisuke,” ken says. “you’re the cure.”

he takes the hand from his cheek and guides it back to his neck, presses it there with a breathy gasp that tilts his chin back enough for daisuke to tuck his head beneath it and press his lips to ken’s clavicle.

“i won’t let it take you from me,” he murmurs into the dip between his bones, his own tears staining ken’s skin. he can feel the spore fighting back, throbbing under his palm with all the cruel coldness that had threatened to take ken over before he had daisuke’s warmth to cling to. ken breathes like he’s sobbing, chest spasming against daisuke’s, but no sound comes out.

“stay with me.”

slowly, the stinging cold underneath their entwined hands recedes. slowly, daisuke’s steady heartbeat leads ken’s to safety. he presses their bodies together with all his might and kisses at his collarbone, loving life back into him.

_ “stay with me.” _

—

they wake up the next morning still entwined at every joint and junction. ken’s body is his own again, but somehow also daisuke’s. the spore is gone.

“you did it,” ken whispers, stroking his fingers through daisuke’s hair. “you saved me.”

he doesn’t want to part, not yet. daisuke inhales at his throat, drinking in the new warmth of his skin.

“i’d never break a promise to you.”

there’s no way to properly thank him for that, so ken just keeps holding him close, letting the vibrant beating of his heart against daisuke’s say the things he can’t.

**Author's Note:**

> [i did some art for this during daiken week 2020 if you wanna check it out!](https://twitter.com/fawnmons/status/1271292330859835399?s=21) i hope you enjoyed the fic cuz it’s pretty dear to me ;w;


End file.
